Engineers from the University of Glasgow, who have previously developed an ”electronic skin” covering for prosthetic hands made from graphene, have found a way to use some of graphene”s remarkable physical properties to use energy from the sun to power the skin.
Graphene is a highly flexible form of graphite which, despite being just a single atom thick, is stronger than steel, electrically conductive, and transparent. It is graphene”s optical transparency, which allows around 98{261f6ead6a0f3cabae584e9904bae8bd53a3c91c6c837aa2d58453541104ad2d} of the light which strikes its surface to pass directly through it, which makes it ideal for gathering energy from the sun to generate power.
A new research paper, published today in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, describes how Dr Dahiya and colleagues from his Bendable Electronics and Sensing Technologies (BEST) group have integrated power-generating photovoltaic cells into their electronic skin for the first time.